ORCHIDACEAE

Tailed Spider Orchid

Rare 

0.08m - 0.15m (8-15cm) 

Flowers usually single 40-50mm across. red flowers, dark red to blackish osmophores on all perianth segments. 

Papery capsule 

Leaf broadly linear, base reddish-purple, densely hairy. 

Break O'Day; Burnie; Clarence; Derwent Valley; Dorset; Flinders Island; Georgetown; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; Glenorchy; Hobart; Kingborough; Latrobe; Launceston; Sorell; Southern Midlands; Tasman; West Tamar 

Coastal Vegetation; Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland; Grassy Vegetation; Heath 

Heathy and grassy eucalypt forest and woodlands, often with She-Oaks. Sunny north facing slopes. 

Dry; Exposed; Exposed; Moist; Shady 

Tender 

Loam; Sandy; Well-drained 

Flowers are pollinated by male Thynnine wasps. Fire frequency moderate to high. Suitable below powerlines. 

 

Standard 

 

 

Orchid seeds are very minute yellow, brown or blackish dust-like particles. Orchid seeds are produced within a capsule that splits at maturity and releases tousands to millions of seeds. Dispersed by wind and water and only germinate following infection of the embryo by a suitable mycorrhizal fungus. Very few seeds become mature plants. For more information see Jones, Wapstra, Tonelli, Harris (1999): The Orchids of Tasmania.